“You should be embarrassed.”
As darkness slowly crept over Johnny Unitas Stadium, new Towson head football coach Rob Ambrose made it crystal clear to his players that he wasn’t thrilled with their lack of intensity during the team’s third practice of the spring last week.
“There are some of you — and it is noticeable — that are going in the right direction,” he said sternly, briefly pausing between each thought to make his words sink in. “When you wear this jersey, there’s an expectation that goes with it. … If you want to be called men, then grow the hell up.”
The Tigers had just capped off a fast-paced, three-hour practice by sprinting from goal line to goal line 14 straight times. Eighty or so players stood gasping for air near the 30-yard line as Ambrose chewed them out before abruptly banishing them to the locker room.
“Get off!” he snarled. “You don’t deserve to be on this f—ing field.”
Hired in late December to rebuild a struggling football program that was, as he put it, “content with being just good enough,” the 1993 Towson graduate was sending a message to his team: Do things the right way — his way — or don’t bother strapping on your helmet.
‘WHEN MOMMA CALLS, YOU COME HOME’
Ambrose got a life-altering phone call from his agent in early December. Towson had fired his former mentor Gordy Combs following back-to-back losing seasons, and they wanted to know if Ambrose, Connecticut’s offensive coordinator last season, was interested in the position. He was, but didn’t want to discuss the opening until the Huskies finished their Big East schedule.
The 38-year-old father of two wanted another head-coaching gig (he was Catholic’s coach in 2001 after eight years on Towson’s staff) because his 8-year-old daughter Grace and 5-year-old son Riley wanted to spend more time with him.
“My daughter wanted to know why I didn’t go to birthday parties anymore,” said Ambrose. “I said ‘I don’t set the schedule,’ and she said ‘Daddy, when you were the head coach, didn’t you set the schedule?’ She’s smart.”
A few weeks later, Ambrose accepted the Towson job, quipping at a news conference introducing him as the fourth head coach in Towson’s 40-year football history, “Your alma mater is like your mother. When momma calls, you come home.”
No one doubted his coaching ability, but listening to momma raised some eyebrows. Sure, Ambrose played quarterback for the Tigers and kicked off his coaching career there as a student assistant after suffering a dislocated hip and fractured pelvis in spring practice before his senior season, but this was considered, at best, a lateral move for the rising young coordinator.
Ambrose doesn’t see it that way. In his eyes, the growth of Towson’s student population, the sweeping physical changes across campus and a university-wide commitment to excellence under its president, Dr. Robert Caret, turned an intriguing opening at his old stomping ground into an exciting job prospect.
“Looking out the window, what I see now was not here when I left,” said Ambrose, who grew up in Frederick County. “Looking at the campus and seeing the construction, it’s a whole lot of dreams coming into fruition.”
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